A delicate aggression Savagery and survival in the Iowa Writers' Workshop

Several books on the Iowa Writers' Workshop have been published, but given Dowling's reputation and the scope of his effort, A Delicate Aggressive should prove one of the most lasting and most memorable. Dowling (Univ. of Iowa) has earned national recognition with several previous books, among them Emerson's Protégés: Mentoring and Marketing Transcendentalism's Future (CH, Feb'15, 52-2955). Organized chronologically into three parts with chapters devoted to the workshop's most famous and notorious veterans, the present book describes the workshop's influence on many of the US's most celebrated writers. Although a reviewer for Publisher's Weekly deemed Dowling's extended and often irreverent anecdotes unnecessary and superfluous, in fact this material brings to life the tensions between commercial and literary success, illuminates the problematic, ongoing dominance of white heterosexual males, and addresses the occurrence of mental disorders and even suicides. As A Delicate Ambition confirms, the Iowa Writers' Workshop has powerfully influenced 20th-century American literature and evolving notions of how creative writing should (and should not) be taught. This is a delightful and accessible overview of the workshop, its history, and its impact on American letters. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers. --Catherine Erin O'Neill Armendarez, New Mexico State University at Alamogordo

Journalism professor Dowling (Surviving the Afterlife) charts the 83-year life of one of the nation's leading writing programs, zooming in on specific writers with a granularity that hampers his ambitiously scaled narrative. Starting with the program's 1940s rise to prominence, Dowling moves chronologically, focusing on the tricky balancing act of turning out writers equipped for both commercial and literary success. However, Dowling too often detours into anecdotes unrelated to this central theme. For instance, he recounts a bar fight between then-workshop student John Irving and another student who had called Irving's favorite professor, Kurt Vonnegut, a "science fiction hack." More pertinently, Dowling discusses how Marilynne Robinson's rise to fame outside the workshop "has relied on the power of commercial media-despite her principled renunciation of it." He observes that Robinson strongly opposes the current University of Iowa president for being a corporate veteran with no academic experience, an apt illustration of the conflict between academe and commerce at the book's heart. Dowling is at his best when showing how this quandary relates to the outside world, demonstrating why the story of the workshop matters to more than just those who've passed through its hallowed classrooms. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.